Bad Hair Year

There are a lot of things no one tells you about pregnancy. Some of these things can be downright shocking to experience, but in my opinion, it's the crazy stuff that lingers with you far after you give birth that really gets frustrating. For example, no one told me that ALL of my hair was going to fall out in huge clumps every time I shower, comb it, bump up against something, walk, breathe . . . . you get the picture. Thankfully, the falling out part has slowed down a ton. But now, I get to deal with the far less attractive growing back in stage. I really should have gone with my gut and dressed as Hermione for Halloween this year. I have these tufts . . . oh, it's bad. Anyway, this is just a heads up to anyone who will experience this phenomenon in the future and also an explanation to those who are wondering why I have inch long bangs sprouting from my forehead.

Also, I am not ashamed to say that I did not walk away from pregnancy without stretch marks. I would like to think that I am not the only one so I want to share my amazing find with you. Boots Botanics Stretch mark Corrector Cream. Amazing. I have been using it for about 3 weeks and my stretch marks have pretty much disappeared. It's a little pricey ($12 at Target) but you don't need much and it's simply amazing. Okay, now we will never speak of this again.

Goals

In Sunday School this week we were all asked to write down a list of 5 goals that we have. I was shocked to find out that I couldn't think of anything! I mean, I'm a planner, a thinker aheader, an over analyzer . . . with no goals. Well, nothing besides: take a shower everyday, lose that last 5 pounds, make it through the day. The usual. I have always had goals in my life but, is it sad to say that most of the goals I made growing up only went as far as motherhood? I am truly blessed to have achieved so much at 23. I am married in the temple, have started a beautiful family, got my degree, and so forth. But I really never thought much about what I want to do next. So, I have been thinking and I am going to come up with 5 new goals for my life (or more, if I can). I want to be the ambitious girl that wrote a list of 65+ goals for my life. I guess I can check getting my driver's license off that list . . . and going on a date. Anyway, now that I am a "grown up" it's time to start thinking ahead again. And while some days I may only be able to live one day at a time, I want to live my life to the fullest and know that I achieved everything I ever dreamed.

Conundrum

As most of you know, we have only lived here for a few months. We are renting a duplex and there are a lot of really good things about where we live. I'll tell you about those later, when I think of some. I'm sure you know that renting anywhere has it's ups and downs. We truly are blessed to have found so many decent places to live from out of state. However, I have a problem here. As I said, we live in a duplex so we share all the walls on one half of the house. I have met our neighbors: a man and his two teenage daughters. well, I met him once and once his oldest daughter borrowed my phone because she locked herself out of the house. They are relatively quiet and seem nice. Here's the problem- loud bathing. That's right, nearly every morning between FOUR and FIVE THIRTY someone next door is taking an incredibly loud, squeaky bath. I know that I am a light sleeper but who does this?! Sometimes they even wake up Nathan, and that's crossing the line. I would describe the sounds I am woken up to as a drunk elephant trying to do ballet in a bathtub. No one needs to drop the shampoo bottle 15 hundred times!

Okay, so I am writing this to vent, but also because I need some advice. How does one handle something like this? I don't want to confront them and make it worse and it just feels kind of awkward to talk to someone I really don't know about their bathing habits. HELP!!!

8 months old!

Nathan is 8 months old today. I can't believe that in just 4 short months I will have a 1 year old. Where does the time go?! He is such a good, happy boy and we love every minute we get to spend with him. He loves to roll around on the floor like a little tumbleweed. He has no interest in sitting but I think he will be crawling soon. He is also just learning how to feed himself finger foods. We can't wait to share Christmas with our special boy.

Nathan loves his binky. I'm not complaining because I actually get to listen a little bit in sacrament meeting.

Chewing on the TV remote, as usual.

With his two favorite things.

And a smiling one because Grandma Betty says, "Most mothers try to get their babies to smile for pictures." And because I love his smile!

Calories Don't Count on Thanksgiving

We had so much fun visiting my family in Washington for Thanksgiving. It was the first time I had been home for Thanksgiving since high school!

Get me out of this car already!

We got there just in time to celebrate my brother Jesse's 14th birthday on the 25th. My mom made him a yummy Reese's ice cream cake. And so it began . . .

Ryan and I stayed up until 1 the night before Thanksgiving so he could make apple pies. Things got a little out of hand.

We celebrated a low-key Thanksgiving with just my family, minus my older brother, Ryan. He got to eat with my in-laws in Rigby.

Even Nathan enjoyed turkey, sweet potatoes, apple, and pumpkin

The day after Thanksgiving we hung out with my dear friend Alex and her husband, Devan and their daughter, Hannah. I really miss living near them in Utah!

Hannah is almost exactly a year older than Nathan, and as you can see, they are about the same size!

The birthday buddies with their babies

Me and Alex, friends since 5th grade!

We got Hannah to kiss Nathan (it didn't take much) and he really seemed to like it! I think we've got trouble on our hands!

My sister Leslie talked us into giving Nathan his first mohawk.

Teaching Nathan to play the piano.

We are so glad we got to spend time with family! Hopefully I can get caught up on the unpacking and laundry before we do it again in 3 weeks!

With Nana and Papa

With Uncle Kevin

Nathan's Christmas Wish List

• A Light Switch
• Junk Mail
• Anything with a Tag
• Whatever Mom and Dad are eating
• TV Remotes
• Computer Keyboard
• Cell Phone (but not his toy cell phone)
• 1 Clothing/Diaper free day

What's Up?

Ryan and I LOVE Pixar movies so when we saw previews for "Up" we got really excited. We never really see movies in theaters, and even if we did this movie came out not long after Nathan was born and we were a little busy. So we decided to wait until it came out on DVD and then just buy it as an anniversary gift since it was in theaters around our anniversary. Little did we know we would be waiting 6 months! Well, this week it finally came to DVD so Ryan and I had a much needed date night. We watched "Up" and ate push-ups and fruit roll-ups, of course. It was a fun night and the movie was not a disappointment!

I'm No Martha Stewart . . .

Since Ryan and I got married, we have pretty much always been students which means, we have always been poor. So, nearly all of our living room furniture was either free or came from a thrift store. I don't worry too much about home decor because we move so often and every living room has a different size and shape. However, our wonderful, free Ikea loveseat is looking pretty darn yucky. I have plans to recover it but I need some advice because I have discovered that my interior decorating skills are sorta lame. I do love to repaint and re-do our cheap stuff but sometimes I need some good ideas. I've looked at fabric at Joann's and I think I found one I like. Not sure though. have I mentioned that I'm not good at making decisions? Here are some pictures of my living room (no it is not clean. Don't pretend that your living room is clean every day) and the fabric I am looking at next to my couch cover and pillows. The desk in the corner will fit when we move the bookshelf over and it will hold our new computer. Please advise me! And if you see anything else that gives you ideas for me, feel free to share!

By the way, I know the baby doesn't really match the decor, but he's stayin' no matter what!

He's 7 Months Old!

As you probably guessed, Nathan is 7 months old today. I feel like he has really grown up a lot in the past few weeks. For one thing, he's mobile now. He's been rolling all over the place! He can also pivot his body while he's on his tummy and if he gets excited enough he scoots backwards. He is still not quite sitting up all by himself but I think he will be in another week or so. He also still has no teeth but will eat anything and everything. I think I am going to lose weight because I always have to eat in hiding so he doesn't think he gets to share. No one told me that kids start throwing tantrums at such a young age! Well, maybe just my kid but he definitely lets me know when he is mad. We took him to the doctor last week (and he got 5 shots!) and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that his new doctor is LDS. Nathan is finally starting to thin out (for him). He is 19 lbs 7 oz (69%) and 29 1/4 inches (98%). He is obviously going to grow up to be tall and skinny like his Daddy. Unfortunately he has now outgrown his carseat lengthwise so we will be moving to a big boy carseat soon. Nathan loves to play with paper and anything with wheels. He loves to scratch and feel things and most recently has become fascinated with the velcro straps on his diapers. We have to make sure he always has pants on or his diaper might come off! He's keeping me on my toes but he's still our happy, good boy!

Now that he can roll, he loves being on his tummy!

Our cute, big boy

Okay! No more pictures!

Tantrum Time! Even happy babies have their moments!

Happy Halloween

I really couldn't care less about Halloween. I think it's because I want to do things all or nothing and we really have never had the time or money to go all out. so we do nothing. Maybe next year when Nathan is old enough to enjoy it. I guess I can't say we do absolutely nothing. Just no dressing up and no candy. Trust me, I would love to dress up, but again, I would have to put way too much time and energy and money into a costume. We did have orange pumpkin-shaped pancakes for breakfast this morning and Ryan and I will be watching our traditional "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit" this evening. We have tickets to the big game here in Eugene (U of O is playing USC and it's a BIG DEAL) but we obviously couldn't get a babysitter for Halloween evening and I really don't feel comfortable taking Nathan into Autzen Stadium, known for it's lack of hospitality. So, Ryan is going to the game for a bit while I stay home and deal with our loud neighbors. All I can say is, he better bring home ice cream! I hope everyone enjoys this holiday, no matter how you choose to spend it!

Ouch!

This weekend has been kind of a rough one at our house. On Friday afternoon I was sitting in the living room waiting for Ryan to get home from class. He rides his bike to and from campus every day. Nathan and I were relaxing in the living room when my cell phone rang. I answered it and heard a strange man talking but couldn't understand what he was saying because the connection was really bad. I almost hung up because I figured he was a telemarketer or something. Instead I said, "I'm sorry, I can't understand you." Then I heard him say, "Your husband has been in an accident." No one ever, ever wants to hear those words. Ever. I immediately asked if Ryan was okay and the man told me he was. I talked to Ryan for a moment and he assured me that he was okay. The man (I think his name was Brian) told me that Ryan had had a near miss with a pedestrian and had gone over his handle bars. Anyone who knows me will know that by now I was about to die from inner hysteria. Especially since I heard this guy say to Ryan as Ryan got on the phone with me, "don't touch the phone since your hands are covered in blood." AHHH! So, Ryan's face was cut and he needed stitches and he might have a broken nose and they were going to take him to the hospital and he would call me when he was ready to come home. Goodbye. And cue hysteria. I immediately called my mom. Sweet Nathan was so cute and concerned about me while I cried. He just kept looking at me and making little sad noises until I looked at him and smiled and told him Mommy was okay. Then he smiled and was happy again. I hurried to make phone calls and to get ready to rush out the door when I got a phone call from the hospital. I took Nathan to a friends house (THANK YOU CHRISTY AND ELIJAH!!) and went home and waited for the phone to ring and looked up directions to the hospital. When the nurse called me, he said" did you know your husband was in an accident?" I said yes and he said, "okay. He wasn't sure if you knew." That freaked me out because he talked to me before. I headed off to the hospital and of course, because I am directionally challenged, I went somewhere completely different and what should have been a 15 minute trip took me almost an hour. Poor Ryan! Anyway, Ryan ended up with 5 stitches in his mouth, no broken nose, and scrapes on his face. As far as we know, he went over the handlebars of this bike and landed on his face. I am so glad that he ALWAYS WEARS HIS HELMET!! and I am grateful for health insurance. Ryan got to ride in an ambulance and said he was very polite and funny on the way to the hospital (he was totally out of it). He still doesn't remember talking to me at the crash site or even giving anyone my phone number. He doesn't remember other things that happened but more is coming back to him. So, we are taking it easy and I am nursing him back to health. Here's a picture of what he looked like this afternoon, a big improvement from yesterday. I asked him if I could take his picture yesterday but he said no. I would have said no too. Then I would have punched me for asking. In his words, "I'll never be beautiful again!!" What a strange man. I think we are both feeling a bit traumatized and a lot grateful.

I need this!

After 6 + months (and not stopping any time soon) of breastfeeding a very hungry boy about every two hours all day long, I think I need to get this on a t-shirt!

That was a close one!

A few weeks ago Ryan and I were asked to give sacrament talks in our new ward. We were set to speak yesterday and had to choose a conference talk from the Saturday morning (me) and Saturday afternoon (Ryan) sessions of conference to speak on. Needless to say, I had so many options when choosing a talk. One of which was the talk given by Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy. His talk was entitled "That Your Burdens May Be Light" and was very inspirational. I ended up choosing Elder Bednar's talk instead (More Diligent and Concerned at Home) and boy am I glad I did! Not only because Elder Bednar's talk was GREAT, but because who should happen to be IN SACRAMENT MEETING WITH US???!!! Why Elder Clayton himself, of course! Can you imagine?! "And now I am going to elaborate on Elder Clayton's talk (Hope I copied this down correctly)" Yikes! I'm starting to get nervous. This is NOT the first time a General Authority has been on the stand with me when I have spoken in sacrament meeting. I've got to up my game.

6 months old!

I think I say this every month, but I really can't believe how fast Nathan is growing up! I can't believe we are celebrating his half birthday today! Time goes so quickly. All I have to do is double this time and I have a 1 year old! Whoa. Here's what Nathan has been up to:

Nathan loves to talk. He says mama and baba and sometimes he mixes them to make his own word: babm babm. He loves to chatter to himself and his toys and make as much spit as he possibly can. He has also recently discovered how entertaining it can be to scream happily to himself over and over. It is so cute. He scrunches up his face and squeezes his little fists and shakes and screams. Sacrament meeting is about to get really fun.

Nathan can roll from his tummy to his back (we can't do tummy time any more because he automatically rolls over) and he is SO close to rolling from his back to his tummy. He is also almost able to sit up by himself. Almost. He has really strong legs and if he had better control over his body I bet he would be able to stand up holding on to the couch or something.

Nathan loves hands and feet and faces. He has learned how to pinch and scratch things. His favorite place to put his hands is inside my mouth. Occasionally, if I am rocking him, he won't go to sleep unless his fingers are in my mouth. weird kid.

Speaking of sleep, Nathan still sleeps long hours at night and (usually) he does a really great job of falling asleep on his own. Occasionally he just doesn't want to or I want to rock him because I need a good snuggle.

Nathan loves his baby food and will eat just about anything we offer him. The kid must have hollow legs because I don't think he is ever full. I'm going to be in trouble when he is a teenager!

Something funny we discovered about Nathan when we moved to this house is that he is deathly afraid of . . .arms!!! From certain places in the living room you can see across the dining room and into the kitchen just a little bit. One night I was in the living room with Nathan and Ryan was stirring something at the stove. All Nathan could see was his arm stirring. He was hysterical. The poor child was terrified! We tried it again later (we are cruel parents) just to make sure, and he was terrified again. It's sad, but SO funny!

I am interested to see how much Nathan weighs now but because of our move the soonest I could get a 6 month appointment for him was the end of October. I think he is slowing down now, although he wears size 12 months in some brands.

Sorry for the length of this post. The grandparents like it.

Do the Puyallup!

Last weekend, Ryan, Nathan, and I went up to Washington to visit my family. It had been almost 2 years since we had been to their house so we were really excited to go. They live in downtown Puyallup which is such a fun place to be! We didn't get to stay long but we did get to go to the Puyallup Fair while we were there. If you live in that area, you go to the fair every fall, no matter what. The schools even have a fair day so the kids can get out of school to go! I had not been since high school so I was really excited! Since my parents now live downtown, they are only a few blocks away from the fair and they got us free tickets! Ryan and I went on Saturday afternoon and enjoyed walking around together and seeing all the fun exhibits. We didn't go on any rides because it's just not worth the money to us but we did see the giant mama pig and her brand new babies. Is it silly that seeing all those tiny little baby piggies with their mama made me sad that Nathan was not with us? He had fun without us though. He got to go with Nana and Leslie to their primary activity and later did a photo shoot with Nana and Papa. We got our hands stamped and went back to the fair later that day to take Nathan to see the animals. We thought he would love seeing them since he spent the whole weekend trying to get his hands on my parents new dog. Poor Lucy! I think she was terrified of him (he's about her size). It is so nice to be only 4 hours away from my family!

This nice boy let us pet his baby goat. Nathan doesn't look very into it here but he loved it! I am holding his hand because he kept grabbing the poor goat's face and I was afraid it would bite him! So I let him pet it's back instead but unfortunately for the goat, it had nice thick, long hair on it's back that Nathan was able to get a good handful of. The boy and the goat were both very patient with us. Maybe we will try again next year when I don't have to worry about a fistful of goat hair going straight into my baby's mouth!

Ryan took Nathan into the petting zoo were he got to pet more goats. There were baby chicks too but we though it wise to keep his grabby fists away from them. Sorry I cut your face off Ryan! I had to make sure I got enough goat in the picture from the other side of the fence.

Here's our baby model from his photo shoot with Nana and Papa! He looks like he is about to pop out of his clothes!

If you want to hear more about our funding, check out the story on Ryan's blog.

Funding

That's right.

Funding.

We got it.

Going Green (and Yellow)

Well, we've survived Oregon for two weeks now. Things are now starting to feel better for me. It's always hard to move to a new place but I think this has been the hardest move for me by far. First of all, I really didn't realize what a culture shock I was going to get moving here. I didn't grow up in a predominantly LDS area but after living in clean-cut Idaho and Utah for the past 3 years I was surprised to find how "shocked" I was when we got here. Also, this is the very first time that we have ever moved and I haven't had a way to meet people. Of course, we have met a few people in our new ward (I miss the Bountiful 15th SO much!) but I am not working or going to school and I feel a little (A LOT!!!!) stranded. I did join the local stay at home moms group and while I have yet to join them for an activity, I feel better knowing I have options. Ryan has been leaving me the car when he goes to class but I am so bad with directions and I still have no perception of where we are located compared to everything else! I would get so lost! Plus, I hate driving.

We are living in a townhouse duplex in Springfield on a street of other duplexes. We are about 5 miles from school in Eugene so Ryan rides his bike every day. As far as I can tell our neighbor on the other side of the duplex is a single guy. He's pretty quiet but something about him is a little creepy. I have never met him even though I tried twice to bring cookies over. He didn't answer so I finally took that as a sign to eat the cookies myself. On the other side there is a house with it's back to us (we are on the corner) and some loud middle-aged people living there. They like to BBQ with loud music and alcohol. We finally met him the other day and I was amazed by how NICE he is. His name is Jim, a big guy with a t-shirt that says "eat. sleep. hunt." and he smells like beer and cigarettes but he tells us all about how much he likes children and that the days his two children were born were the best of his life and that he felt that God was there with a hand on his shoulder helping to raise his children. He also invited us to come to one of his BBQ's. I'm pretty sure he's going to keep hollering to us to come over every time he leave the house until we accept. Despite his demeanor, he seems to be a genuinely good man.

My mom was able to come down to see us this weekend and it was so nice to see her. She always helps me put life in perspective so I'm feeling a little bit more at home now. But, I'm not kidding myself. I know she just came to see Nathan :)

I plan to take pictures of our new place once it's clean and we have pictures hung and such (so, you know, in about 6 months or so) and then I will post them for your viewing pleasure.

If any of you other stay at home moms have any ideas about how to meet people, let me know!

Five Months Old!

I can't believe Nathan is already five months old! He is so grown up! He is eating all sorts of new foods. There is nothing he doesn't like! He is talking like crazy and so much fun! He has also discovered his feet and how to make noises with his lips. Mostly he just blows spit a lot. He's still working of rolling and scooting. So much fun! We love our little man so much! In other news, we are still getting settled in Oregon and I admit I am having a bit of culture shock after living in Idaho and Utah for the last few years. We'll keep you posted about our new home.

Here's Nathan wearing one of Daddy's old baseball outfits. (The tag says 12 months)

Eating yummy carrots

Most people who see Nathan say he is really serious because he loves to stare at strangers.

But he loves to smile a lot too.

What a grown up boy!

We think he is so cute!

Nathan loves to read books (did I say read books? I meant eat books).

Helping Daddy celebrate his first day as a Grad student!